Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment. The semiconductor devices are fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductor layers over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography and etching processes to form circuit components and elements on the semiconductor substrate.
As the semiconductor industry has progressed into nanometer technology process nodes in pursuit of higher device density, higher performance, and lower costs, challenges from both fabrication and design issues have resulted in the development of three-dimensional designs, such as fin-like field effect transistors (FinFETs). The FinFET is fabricated with a thin vertical “fin” (or fin structure) extending from a substrate. The channel of the FinFET is formed in this vertical fin. A gate is provided over the fin. Advantages of the FinFET may include reducing the short channel effect and higher current flow.
However, since the feature sizes continue to decrease, fabrication processes continue to become more difficult to perform. Therefore, it is a challenge to form a reliable semiconductor device including the FinFET.